A RUNNING ACCOUNT OF LIFE ALONG THE HUDSON RIVER

Monthly Archives: June 2012

I tagged along with members of Occupy Wall Street’s marine contingent Saturday as they sailed out of the 79th Street Boat Basin bound for Staten Island. Read the full story here.

Several crew members remained on board after the tour, flying protest banners and drumming well into Sunday. They anchored 20-30 yards southwest of the derelict 69th Street Transfer Bridge, an area beyond the boat basin mooring field the protesters had been prohibited from demonstrating in by the Parks Department. Around 3:00 Sunday afternoon, crew member John Eustor shot this footage of a dolphin swimming around the boat.

A fellow disenfranchised American? Crew-members speculated that it may have been drawn to the boat by the vibrations from their drum playing. A number of people photographed the animal as it made it’s way toward New York Harbor. Sadly, a dead dolphin was found floating in the marina at Chelsea Piers several days later. Many assume it was the one spotted on Sunday afternoon. Results of a necropsy by the Riverhead Foundation are forthcoming. Read more here.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has set sail to spread a protest message across Manhattan via the city’s waterways. Led by members of Pulse, the movement’s drum circle working group, the OWS marine contingent made it’s maiden voyage down the Hudson River aboard a sailboat named The Druid on Saturday, anchoring just south of the 79th Street Boat Basin. Having passed muster with Coast Guard officials who boarded the boat to inspect it over the weekend, the crew of self-styled “Occu-pirates” hopes to be the vanguard of a floating protest community to sail around the city this summer.